Only with Complete Precepts, Samādhi, and Wisdom Can One Attain Realization and Avoid Mere Intellectual Understanding

The Buddha said: samādhi arises from precepts, and wisdom arises from samādhi. Precepts, samādhi, and wisdom must be complete not only in the mind consciousness but also in the manas. If the manas is to have the wisdom of eliminating self-view and the wisdom of seeing the true mind, it must also possess meditative concentration, investigating and deliberating within samādhi the dharma of non-self, investigating and deliberating true suchness and buddha-nature; only then can it eliminate self-view and awaken to the true mind and see its nature.

If the manas cannot personally investigate and deliberate, then it cannot accept the principles that the mind consciousness instills into Him, and in the end it is still only the mind consciousness that achieves intellectual understanding. And for the manas to investigate and deliberate the principle of non-self, it likewise must have meditative concentration; otherwise He will become distracted and scattered. If the manas lacks meditative concentration, it will drag the six consciousnesses into distraction. When the six consciousnesses are distracted, they constantly discern, always needing to report the content of their discernment to the manas, so the manas must continually divide its attention, unable to concentrate on investigation, and cannot arrive at an ideal result through investigation.

No method can substitute for meditative concentration. Be very careful with methods of practice based on intellectual understanding. Practicing according to the methods taught by the World-Honored One can never go wrong. All the disciples in the Buddha's time practiced sitting meditation and cultivated samādhi; thus in their daily walking, standing, sitting, and lying down, their minds were always contemplating the Dharma within samādhi. Practitioners from the Tang and Song dynasties—before the Ming and Qing, and before the Republic—all took sitting meditation and cultivating samādhi as their main practice; afterwards, even while walking, standing, sitting, and lying down they could maintain meditative concentration, with the mind constantly abiding in samādhi. In this way their thinking was fine and precise, and the conditions for breaking through were easily ripened—upon encountering conditions, they realized it immediately. When we look back today, their realization of the Buddha's Dharma seems to have come so easily, yet little do we realize that their foundational practice was quite excellent: their roots of goodness and merit were complete, the thirty-seven aids to the path were complete—and of course this included complete meditative concentration—so their thinking was sharp and clear, and upon hearing some corresponding dharma, they could realize and awaken to it instantly.

Among all who teach the Dharma, what the Buddha taught is the most perfect and most ultimate; no one can surpass the Buddha's wisdom. Trusting the Buddha's words is absolutely without error. In whatever era, the Buddha's Dharma never changes; the Buddha's Dharma is forever applicable to all eras. Reading more Buddhist sutras will increase your wisdom, so you will not take detours and will not easily be deceived. The teachings of all bodhisattvas, compared with the Buddha's, have omissions and leaks, and have points that are not perfect and not ultimate; therefore, in our study and practice of the Buddha's Dharma, we should still take the Buddhist sutras as primary.